How to make honeycomb garland

I have seen these honeycomb garlands popping up all over the Internet. When I was young my whole family used to get together to make all the Christmas decorations for our home, from honeycomb balls to crepe paper garlands. There are a few instructions for making a honeycomb garland out there, but they are so drawn out and difficult that you don't want to bother. But making them is actually quite simple.

west elm

Inspired by these gorgeous honeycomb garlands, this year I am making my own Christmas decorations...

1. Cut half circles using a side plate as a template. You will need a total of 28 sheets per half circle, and two half circles in total. Use a sharp craft knife and cutting board or mat for a neat edge.

2.Fold the half circle in half and cut a notch at the top of the fold.

3. Fold each quarter section so that it lines up with the first notch and cut a notch on both sides.

4. After folding and cutting you will end up with 5 notches as shown left. These notches will be used as guides for gluing each sheet of tissue paper together.

5. Pop in three staples along the straight edge, placing them as close as possible to the edge.

6. Using small sticks as backers, place these on three alternate notches as shown left. Apply a small blob of glue to the uncovered two notches. Quickly fold the next sheet over and press gently. Leave the sticks in place for now.

7. Now you are going to put the sticks over where the glue was last applied - the two notches - and apply a small blob of glue to where there are no sticks - the three notches. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the remaining sheets.

8. Once you have finished gluing all the sections on the side you can carefully remove the sticks. This method makes it so easy to know what section to glue next and also helps stop the sheets sticking together.
After removing all the sticks, pull away any glue strands.

9. Fan open the honeycomb to make sure that you haven't missed any spots and that it opens nicely.

10. Repeat the entire process above for the second half-circle.

11. Use hot glue to glue the two half circles together on top of each other. Attach one end of your hanging ribbon to the back of one half circle. This part is tricky but persevere. Fan open the glued half circles, so that they complete a full circle. Use hot glue to attach the two half circles together. Insert the other end of your ribbon and secure with hot glue.

Instead of using ribbon, the red honeycomb garland has a pipe cleaner hot glued in place.

Now that you know how easy it is to make honeycomb garlands, you can make them in gorgeous bold, bright colours to dress up your next event.